


The End of the World

by AshenArrow



Series: Thin Ice [3]
Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: F/M, Gen, Hockey, Hockey Injuries, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Injury Recovery, Outing, Physical Therapy, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Secret Identity, Women in the NHL
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-18
Updated: 2019-11-18
Packaged: 2021-02-08 11:24:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21475213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AshenArrow/pseuds/AshenArrow
Summary: She never thought that a player from WB only called up after Sid's injury would be the first person on the team to know everything.
Relationships: Original Female Character/Original Male Character
Series: Thin Ice [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1545589
Comments: 1
Kudos: 13





	The End of the World

**Author's Note:**

> Obviously a work of complete fiction <3

December 2019 / @ Detroit Red Wings

I never thought that living with Sid would involve watching him mope about the house after a surgery. He’s coming up on week five of his minimum recovery period so he’s particularly restless these days.

“The team is doing great, Sid,” I had reassured him after he gets back from a rough physical therapy session a couple of days ago.

“I know,” he had agreed, but I could tell he was still dissatisfied.

The team _has _been playing well. There was some brief fumbling in the first week without him, but we rallied and brought the intensity up. Well, I brought the intensity up, apparently. Geno and Jarry have taken to calling me ‘intense’ the last month or so. Tanger and Guentzel are also out with injuries, so there was a lot of compensation that needed to take place, and I was set on making that adjustment happen as soon as possible. I was probably acting a little too much like I had an ‘A’ on my sweater, but Geno approved of the behavior when I eventually caved and asked him about it.

“We no call you ‘baby Sid’ for nothing,” he’d said when I expressed my concerns over whether or not I was overstepping.

Lafferty got called up once Sid was placed on the injured reserve, so it was only natural that we started rooming together on roadies. It wasn’t so natural for me, of course, and caused a lot sleepless nights on my part in the beginning, but Sam still hasn’t ever given me any reason to fear him, so I’ve loosened up significantly. We’re pretty good friends now, too.

We fly out to Detroit the day after we beat Arizona at home. My stream of goals has slowed since the start of my season, which makes sense since the rate was so high, but my number of assists his now being scrutinized as ‘unsustainable’, as well. I imagine myself as that picture of the bird flying without flapping its wings every time I see a new article about it: I’m putting gup these number by sheer force of will.

I’m lying on my bed, an old Disney show rerun playing on the TV, when Sam comes out of the bathroom.

“Hey, man, you have any extra shampoo? I forgot to pack mine, apparently,” he says.

“Yeah, sure,” I reply, distracted by a text that just came through from Sid. “Top pocket,” I direct, gesturing in the vague direction of my suitcase.

He crosses the room as I start typing out a reply to Sid. Sam makes a surprised noise and I finally look up. I can feel the blood drain from my face as I remember with chilling certainty that I had stashed a bunch of ‘just in case’ tampons under my extra travel shampoo bottle.

“Are these…” he begins, trailing off. “You got a girlfriend here in Detroit?” he says weakly.

I can’t even formulate words, too stunned at my world collapsing right before my eyes. This is really where my career ends.

“Or, I guess, they’re yours?” he continues.

I swallow thickly.

“They’re mine,” I say finally.

He nods. I stare, wondering what he’s going to do next.

“So…you’re a girl, then?” he concludes.

I nod stupidly.

“What’re…what’re you gonna do now?” I wobble out.

He stands back up to his full height and takes a step towards me. I shrink back without thinking.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean…are you gonna tell everyone? The team? All your friends?” I stammer, jamming me shaking hands under the blanket so they’re out of view. They’re a blatant display of weakness.

His face screws up in confusion.

“Why would I tell anyone?” he replies.

“Why wouldn’t you?”

He looks a little heartbroken at that. I tuck my knees up to my chest and wait.

“Because I’m not a garbage human being,” he says seriously.

I stare him down, not entirely convinced. I may never been completely convinced.

“Just to be clear, you’re just pretending to be a guy, right?”

“Yeah,” I reply, nodding stiffly.

He takes a few more steps and continues on to sit on the edge of his bed when I don’t react like a cornered animal again.

“So your name obviously isn’t Chris, then. What is it, really? Christina?” he says lightly.

“Callie,” I say quietly.

“Callie Holden?”

“Yeah,” I say with a nod. “But call me Chris, okay? Only Jace calls me Callie.”

“Why only Jace?” he asks.

“We went to high school together, so he knew me before,” I reply. “And, well…he’s my boyfriend, so.”

Sam’s face breaks out into a wide grin.

“So baby Sid _does _have game?” he jokes.

I roll my eyes, cracking a small smile.

“Don’t get too excited, you can’t tell anyone about it. Sidney doesn’t even know about all of this.”

“Oh? I’m the worthy first person to know?”

“Yeah, Sam, you are,” I reply with a grin.

All in all, Sam finding out goes way better than I thought it ever possibly could. Considering I was genuinely terrified that he’d literally jump from being my best friend to raping me in a split second, the bar was pretty low, though.

When Jace calls for his nightly phone call, I don’t disappear into the bathroom. I reassure him in a quiet voice that everything is okay and I don’t think that Sam will tell anyone. He still insists I put Sam on the line so they can have ‘chat’, though, which I do with a long suffering sigh.

“I thought the shovel speech is supposed to be delivered to _him, _not me,” Sam jokes as he hands back my cellphone. I bark out a laugh before pressing the phone back to my ear to say a proper goodbye.


End file.
